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NCSU picks team to develop new Hillsborough Street hotel

North Carolina State University has selected a real estate team led by Raleigh lawyer and real estate developer Michael Sandman and a Washington, D.C., development firm to develop a prime piece of property across from the university’s iconic bell tower building on Hillsborough Street.

A proposal submitted by Bell View Partners of Raleigh and The Bernstein Companies of Washington, D.C., was chosen from four responses to a request for proposal that was issued by the university in April. The University Endowment Fund owns the 1.3-acre site where the project is proposed.

Bell View and Bernstein’s proposed project will include a 125-room hotel that will cater to university and Raleigh visitors, says Ralph Recchie, N.C. State’s director of real estate. The hotel building will also include street-level retail shops and a “signature” restaurant. Bell View and Bernstein will develop and manage the hotel property.

“This is a big step forward in the continuing effort to make Hillsborough Street a destination for the greater community,” Recchie said in a statement.

The new hotel will be located on Hillsborough Street between Enterprise Street and Maiden Lane. It will encompass the Hillsborough Square parking lot next to David’s Dumplings and Players Retreat.

Bell View Partners LLC is a partnership of veteran Triangle real estate investorsMichael Sandman, Mark Andrews and Joe Whitehouse. Sandman says they have not decided which hotel brand they will target for the Hillsborough Street project, but adds they will likely begin discussions with both the Starwood and Marriott hotel groups.

The Bernstein Companies is a Washington, D.C.-base real estate development and investment firm that has invested more than $330 million in equity in commercial real estate projects throughout the mid-Atlantic region under its three Consortium Capital funds.

Bernstein owns four hotel properties that operate under the Marriott- and Best Western-brand flags.